The Rodeo has come to town. Travis Scott (stylized Travi$ Scott) has released his first full-length project, and it is a powerful one for the Kanye West prodigy.

Travis Scott is a Houston rapper who earned his start producing for Kanye West’s 2013 album, Yeezus. Soon after Yeezus released, Travis Scott released his first full-length mixtape, Owl Pharaoh. Upon first listen, Owl Pharaoh was not all that impressive.

It was reminiscent of a dumbed down reflection of Yeezus.

Roughly a year later, Days Before Rodeo was released. It was a fairly solid record. It had its features, it had strong production and it had its catchy tracks. What was surprising was the fact that Travis barely produced any of his tracks on that album. This comes from such an immensely popular protege to Kanye West, who is highly regarded as a rapper and producer. It isn’t as if the flow and lyricism was mind-blowing, either.

However, Days Before Rodeo warranted the arrival of Rodeo, and although postponed multiple times, much to the annoyance of fans, this was Travis’ absolute strongest project yet. Features included Quavo from Migos, Kanye West, Future, 2 Chainz, Justin Bieber, Young Thug and more.

It also included T.I. opening the album and inserting tidbits of spoken words throughout the project. “3500”, the first single, which featured 2 Chainz and Future, was an extremely catchy track. Although long, it’s strength resided in Travis Scott’s autotuned adlibs, Future’s highly significant combination of singing and rapping, and 2 Chainz’ verse describing a life of wealth, saying things such as “backstroke to my children room, maybach in my living room.” This track had especially raised excitement for Rodeo.

The opening track to the album, “Pornography”, begins with spoken words by T.I., vaguely explaining Travis Scott’s choice to ditch authority, and “lead a stampede of lost souls.” The song begins with a mellow mixing of autotuned and a drifty, dreamy bass. Travis is singing a ballad of a girl who reminds him of his ex, being tempted to do drugs with her. The song quickly transitions into a verse in which Travis details his life as he rises to fame.

The next song, “Oh My Dis Side”, featuring Quavo of Migos, is a combination of two songs. “Oh My” is a ballad of life for Travis in the streets, trying to make a name for himself. “Dis Side” is Travis’ explanation of important events in his life, including lyrics such as, “lost a lot of money on this side, had my first kiss on this side,” among others.

Quavo says, “I made it out the hood I’m on the other side.”

The song is a sort of celebration of riches and the feeling of making it. This track is great, standing out among others on the album.

“90210”, one of the best on the album, is a musical track consisting of vocals from Kacy Hill. The song consists of Travis describing a “pornstar girl from the valley” which can be interpreted as a girl trying to make it big in California. The song quickly darkens, lyrically and sonically. The beats become sullen and grisly. The song quickly becomes Travis describing a “superstar girl looking for the alley.”

This line seems to be a statement about the girl from earlier in the song, finding fame but falling into drugs from the “alley.” The song then transitions into a tune reminiscent of 90s R&B, in which Travis spits about his family members and losing friends along the way to fame.

“Pray 4 Love,” featuring The Weeknd, is a heavily vocally influenced song. The Weeknd sings his hook consisting of “Don’t pray for love.” Travis’ verse, once again, speaks about his maturing into a star and his roots, noted in lines such as, “Let me tell you how I turned Scott.”

“Nightcrawler,” featuring Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd along with Chief Keef, is a more gritty song among the others. Its subject matter is riches, exemplified in lyrics such as, “Order more bottles, order more models, order more hours, shots on an island,” allude to this song being about alcohol, drugs and self indulgement. This song also includes one of my favorite Chief Keef lines, in which he rhymes, “Curry and spicy garlic,” with “Girl you know I’m from the projects.”

“Piss On Your Grave”, featuring Kanye West, is very hard-hitting. It begins with an almost grunge-like strumming of an electric guitar, reminiscent of music that would play when the bad guy walks into the bar in an action movie from the 80s. This is quickly followed by Kanye West stating, “I use your face as a urinal, then do the same at your funeral.”

The song then kicks into heavy bass and snare, in which Travis Scott raps, “My, my, my, my, look at little Scotty now, the same f*ckers used to doubt, pull my zipper down and whip it out.” The song is clearly meant to stir rage among listeners. The overall “bad guy” vibe makes the song stand out. “Flying High,” featuring Toro Y Moi, is probably the least enjoyable of the album. Although Toro’s vocals were amazing, the repetitive use of “I be flying high, yeah, I be flying high, shawty,” by Travis grew annoying over time.

“Maria I’m Drunk” is a perfect work of art. Justin Bieber and Travis Scott kill the vocals in the first minute, and Young Thug always has a certain unreplicable energy that makes songs great.

“I Can Tell” is about Travis Scott’s realization of the untrue and backstabbing people around him in his celebrity circle. This song includes one of the more powerful Travis Scott verses on the album, and the passion is highly enjoyable.

“Ok Alright,” with Schoolboy Q, is a song depicting worries of falling off from the rap image and losing fame because of others Travis shouldn’t have brought close to him. The second half of this song is very personal, Travis talks about his home life. He describes how his mom has high regards for him, and how his father was in the wrong scene with criminals.

SZA provides absolutely beautiful, mesmerizing vocals leading up to the dramatic finale to the album, “Never Catch Me.” This song contains a buzzing electric guitar at the beginning, and transitions into Travis rapping about things such as, “Will I ever fall off, I doubt it,” and continues to talk about refraining from becoming a “zombie,” joining the rest of the brainwashed, popstar celebrities. The song concludes how it began, and thus the album is finished. This album was greatly enjoyable, apart from the repetition of “Flying High” and Travis’ (yet again) lack of attendance in production. All negativity aside, for a first full-length album this is a work of art, well-deserving of a 9/10. Well done to Travis Scott, and here’s hoping he graces us with more albums of Rodeo’s caliber.